Most women want to know if they are pregnant as soon and as accurately as possible. For many, this means a visit to the doctor's office. The QuickVue One-Step hCG Combo Test is a pregnancy test intended for professional use only. The test can be used with either urine or serum, meaning blood plasma, hence the "combo" in its name. Accurate reading of the test is an important customer service for patients who are depending on the lab to provide a reliable answer.

Obtain a sample of either urine or serum. While a specimen of the first morning urine will have higher concentrations of hCG, any urine sample is appropriate. Samples of either kind should not be older than 72 hours if kept refrigerated or eight hours if unrefrigerated. The test can be performed on a sample taken up to three days before the woman expects her period to start.

Place three drops of the sample on the card using one of the disposable pipettes provided with the kit. Place the three drops of either urine or serum in the round sample area on the test cassette.

Wait three to five minutes. Do not move the test while you are waiting for a reading. While positive results can be seen as quickly as one minute, the test is designed to be read at exactly three minutes for urine or five minutes for serum. Do not read results after this time limit.

Verify that there is a blue, horizontal, control line visible. This blue line should be next to the "C" in the results window. If there is no control line, the test is not considered valid. If that happens, dispose of the test properly and try again with a new test.

Read the results window. A blue horizontal control line on its own is a negative result, meaning the woman is not pregnant or does not yet have sufficient levels of hCG in her sample to generate a positive result. A blue control line and a horizontal pink line next to the "T" in the results window is a positive result, meaning the woman is pregnant or has levels of hCG consistent with pregnancy. Any pink line at all, regardless of the darkness of the line, is considered a positive result.

Tip

The QuickVue One-Step Combo Test can detect levels as low as 25 mIU/ML when using a urine sample and 10 mIU/ML when using serum.

The QuickVue One-Step Combo Test is a qualitative, not quantitative test. This means that it can only detect whether there is hCG present, not the level at which hCG is present. For closer tracking of hCG levels for purposes of determining the viability of a pregnancy, a quantitative blood test must be used.

When disposing, treat the used test as biohazard waste

References

About the Author

Beth Hagesfeld began writing in her field in 1999. She received honors on her senior thesis, presented at the Michigan Undergraduate Psychology Research Conference, and wrote a master's thesis in 2004. She also writes the parenting/humor blog, Crazy Baby. Hagesfeld holds a Bachelor of Arts in psychology from Kalamazoo College and a Master of Arts in psychology from the University of Akron.